Lions' Run And Shoot Misfiring

Assistant coach Mouse Davis of the Detroit Lions wishes people would stop calling his offense the "run-and-shoot."

But as long as it keeps running and shooting itself in the foot, his radical offense is going to be viewed as something that belongs on a playground rather in the high-tech National Football League.

The offense you see on television this afternoon when the Lions face the Cleveland Browns is the same one Davis began using as a high school coach in Milwaukee in 1963.

It's the same one he used to break 20 major NCAA Division I-AA passing records at Portland State.

And it's the same one that was unstoppable when he coached the Houston Gamblers for two seasons in the United States Football League.

But it doesn't look the same.

"It's a new offense, we put it in this year, and we're not going to see what it can really do until we get the right people for it," Davis said.

Despite his successes in high school, college and the USFL, it took Davis 29 years to find an NFL coach willing to stake his future on his radical offense that employs four wide receivers, one running back and no tight ends.

"There has been strong resistence to it by NFL coaches over the years," said Davis. "To them, my offense was a hodge-podge kind of thing, the kind of offense you would draw up in the playgrounds."

Davis was locked out of a job in the more conservative NFL until then-interim head coach Wayne Fontes of the Lions brought him aboard late in the 1988 season and told him to get his run-and-shoot attack ready for 1989.

Through 11 games, Davis has improved the offense from last year's average of 212 yards per game to 289 yards in 1989.

But the team has a 2-9 record, and the offense, which has been renamed the Silver Stretch, has lost 19 fumbles and been intercepted 20 times.

The plays and the concepts that have made Davis' offenses successful in other places are all in the Lions' playbook, but the execution and the right people to make it work are missing.

To understand the problems Davis is facing, one must understand the basics of the offense.

And that isn't too difficult. Just imagine what any NFL team does on third-and-long situations.

In the Silver Stretch, every play is third and long.

The Silver Stretch employs two receivers split wide at the line of scrimmage, two wide receivers slotted in the backfield, and one running back.

The idea is to spread the defense, force it to extend and cover each receiver, and keep it from crowding the middle and disguising blitzes and stunts.

"If you spread the defense with receivers and take people away from the middle, that's as good as throwing a good block," said Davis.

"Contrary to what people may think, this offense will produce 1,000-yard rushers as easily as it produces receivers with 100 catches."

Davis employs this offense on all downs and from any point of the field. On short-yardage situations he will pull two receivers and put an offensive lineman at tight end and a big running back at fullback.

But all it has done through 11 games is produce a strong running game and a budding 1,000-yard rusher in rookie Barry Sanders.

Through 11 games, Sanders has rushed 165 times for 871 yards, a sparkling 5.3-yard average per carry, and Detroit is the only team in the NFL averaging five yards per rush.

But the passing phase of the run-and-shoot, the part that promises the most excitement, is among the worst in the NFL.

Rookie Rodney Peete, a college star who lasted until the fifth round of the draft because scouts thought he was too small at 6-0, 195 and lacked a major-league arm, has struggled. And there has been little help from a supporting cast that includes journeymen Bob Gagliano, Eric Hipple, Rusty Hilger and injured Chuck Long.

And all four starting receivers are castoffs or free agents.

"It doesn't take great talent or Harvard graduates to play this offense," said Davis, "but it takes bright kids with great feet and hands and some speed.

"The outside receivers need to be fast, the inside receivers need to be quick, and the quarterback needs to have good size and a strong arm.

"It's a very disciplined offense because everybody is reading the defense when the ball is snapped. All four receivers read the coverage and the quarterback has to see what they see and read along with them.

"All offenses require receivers and quarterbacks to read, but this one requires more because you've got four receivers out there and you don't want them running into each other.

"We send in plays from the sideline, but we make a lot of changes at the line of scrimmage to get the best pass routes off the coverage."

It's the same offense Phoenix Cardinals' quarterback Neil Lomax used at Portland State to set 61 NCAA individual and team passing records.

And it's the one Buffalo Bills' quarterback Jim Kelly used to complete 713 of 1,154 passes for 9,842 yards and 83 touchdowns in just two seasons with the Gamblers.

But Lomax's receiving cast at Portland State included former Washington Redskins' receiver Clint Didier.